The home he built last fall is 180 square feet, with a pot belly stove to keep him warm in the winter, a half-moon window above the front door, and a loft he sometimes rents out to homeless friends for $25 a week.

And, five pet rats.

“I don’t have television; I have rat-vision.”

Cookie, 51, has never been married. He’s a long-out-of-work construction worker who said he’s lived on the streets, in caves and has hitchhiked across the country.

He said alcohol almost killed him, so now he drinks only occasionally with friends. For a time, he played accoustic guitar in bands, once at Festival in Grand Rapids, he said.